book recommendation time: high-minded sci-fi

Mazian on 20/2/2008 at 20:00

Quote Posted by Sulphur

If you get your buzz from sci-fi that verges on technophiliac incomprehensibility, there's always (http://www.accelerando.org/book/) Accelerando.

I'll have to check it out, I've already read The Atrocity Archives by the same author. I cannot overstate how cool The Atrocity Archives is. It's about a secret British gov't agency called the Laundry that polices (Cthulhu) Mythos activity. The idea is that certain mathematical functions and formulas can contact Old Ones/entities or open gates and it's up to the Laundry to stop fanatics and the odd prodigy who's messing in things that they shouldn't. It's a perfect fusion of Lovecraft and (modern day) cyberpunk with so many ideas flying around that I read it twice in two months. There's a sequel out called The Jennifer Morgue that I've ordered and haven't received yet.

Quote Posted by Sulphur

What I'd really recommend for just about anybody here is The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester. One of the best books I've ever read, in terms of pace, story, and the outright 'AW FUCK THIS IS AMAZING SHIT' factor.

Hell, it was written in the 50's and it inspired William Gibson to write Neuromancer. What more of a recommendation do ya need?

None. I'll have to read this one, too. :thumb:

june gloom on 20/2/2008 at 21:17

Quote Posted by Mazian

I must have this book.

Scots Taffer on 20/2/2008 at 23:28

That sounds kind of awesome.

Mazian on 21/2/2008 at 05:39

Here's a little snippet. I picked something very early in the book that doesn't spoil any plot. This excerpt is from the part where the protagonist (it's written in the first person) is talking to a weapons instructor about a HOG-3 (Class three Hand of Glory):

"I take it that bullseye wasn't an accident?"

I pick up the hand and remember to disarm it this time. "Nope. You realise you don't need an anthropoid for this? Ever wondered why there are so many one-legged pigeons in central London?"

Harry shakes his head. "You young 'uns. Back when I was getting going we used to think the future would be all lasers and food pills and rockets to Mars."

"It's not that different," I remonstrate. "Look, it's a science. You try using a limb from someone who died of motor neurone disease or MS and you'll find out in a hurry! What we're doing is setting up a microgrid that funnels in an information gate from another contiguous continuum. Information gates are, like, easy; with a bit more energy we can crank it open and bring mass through, but that's more hazardous so we don't do it very often. The demonic presences--okay, the extraterrestrial sapient fast-thinkers on the other side--try to grab control over the proprioceptive nerves they can sense the layout of on the other side of the grid. The nerves are dead, like the rest of the hand, but they still act as a useful channel. So the result is an information pulse, raw information down around the Planck level, that shows up to us as a phase-conjugated beam of coherent light--"

I point the hand at the downrange target. Two smoking feet.

"What will you do if you ever have to point that thing at another human being?" Harry asks quietly.

I put it back on the rack hastily. "I really hope I'm never put in that position," I say.

Sulphur on 21/2/2008 at 07:53

Fortuitous timing! I'm just on my way out to the local stores to pick up my regular DVD and paperback fix. :thumb:

june gloom on 21/2/2008 at 12:20

Oh, I should note, I got Roadside Picnic for Christmas. Bitch to find, I had to order from Amazon UK (hasn't been published in the US for 25 years) and was twice what one would pay for it in England 'cuz of shipping, but it's been a great book so far. (Took me a while to start it, 'cuz I got a whole stack of books for Christmas/my birthday.) Stalker fans should recognize lots of ideas.

Sypha Nadon on 23/2/2008 at 20:12

I don't read much sci-fi but I rank Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Gap Cycle" very highly. Though Donaldson is best known for his Thomas Covenent fantasy series I found the Gap Cycle to be far superior. The series mostly came out back in the 90's, 5 books long, around 2,500+ pages total. It being Donaldson, there are almost no conventional heroes: every character is seriously flawed. In fact, the main hero (for want of a better word), Angus Thermopyle, is a borderline psychotic rapist/killer (and ugly to boot). The angst factor (Donaldson's trademark) can get a little over-the-top at times but I found the series to be very gritty, very enjoyable.

SubJeff on 23/2/2008 at 23:47

I read the "intro" book. It was ok. One of my friends raves about it but the descriptions of female abuse plus the fact that I just go the impression SD was just trying to be gritty put me off.

Sypha Nadon on 24/2/2008 at 00:58

Subjective Effect, the first book is by far the weakest of the five. It gets so much better after that one. As for female abuse, well, it is Stephen R. Donaldson so that kind of comes with the territory...

doctorfrog on 8/3/2008 at 01:10

I had a good time reading The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson. Can anyone recommend any other marathon-ship sci fi?

I've been more interested these days in reading space age sci fi rather than our hip, smartypants information age sci-fi. (I recently finished MacDonald's River of Gods and it was OK, but kinda :erg:) The kind of stuff where people travel in rockets rather than planes (Dick) and robots represented the infinite possibilities that the internet now stands in for (Del Rey, Asimov). I'm also interested in trippy 40's-70's stuff now, like "I Have No Mouth and Must Scream" and "Riders of the Purple Wage." Perhaps not as masturbatory as Heinlein, I've had plenty of him lately.

Any author or book recommendations?

<small>and please god no steampunk</small>